Conventionally, electric vehicles having electric equipment including an inverter and the like mounted inside an engine room are known.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-207241 (Patent Document 1) discloses an engine intake device of a hybrid vehicle provided with an inverter inside a housing of an air cleaner.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-181979 (Patent Document 2) discloses a power control unit, wherein a reinforcing member is provided on an outer wall of a high-voltage box, and a high-voltage terminal block is provided on an inner wall of the high-voltage box protected by the reinforcing member.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-161056 (Patent Document 3) discloses a vehicle body structure provided with a displacement allowance space for allowing for displacement of a unit box upon collision.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-262894 (Patent Document 4) discloses a structure including a bracket that deforms following deformation of a vehicle frame member and an inverter fixed to the vehicle frame member with the bracket. Here, an inverter also displaces following displacement of the bracket, so as to prevent a high-voltage line connected to the inverter from being caught between the vehicle frame member and the inverter.
In an electric vehicle, electric equipment of relatively high voltage tends to be used, in order to obtain sufficient drive force, for example. Accordingly, a high-voltage cable is connected to such electric equipment. In such a case, when structures surrounding the electric equipment deforms or the electric equipment moves due to an external factor such as collision, the high-voltage cable may be caught between the electric equipment and other components.
In Patent Document 1, the inverter is provided inside the housing of the air cleaner. This complicates the structure of the air cleaner and increases costs. Patent Documents 2-4 also fail to disclose any configuration that can sufficiently protect the high-voltage cable while suppressing an increase in costs.